Project Management

Once organized, management of the Great Basin Environmental Program will be similar to the Chesapeake Bay Program. The Governors of the Great Basin States, along with the Congressional delegations, will meet once a year and be responsible for the overall direction of the program and the selection of priority environmental issues. Over time these issues may change along with the tactics for addressing them. Examples include best practices for watershed management, water conservation methods, wildlife counts/surveys, community management of the rural urban interface and others.

The designated lead federal agency will provide day to day management of the Great Basin Environmental Program. This agency will have an office in the Great Basin, and work with the other federal agencies to focus and orient multi-state programs to the critical issues that have been determined by the governors and the congressional delegation from the Great Basin states. Committees or working groups will be assigned to design the multi faceted strategies to address the issues identified by the governors and congressional delegations. The lead agency facilitates the committee meetings, keeps notes and follows up to see that the actions and activities agreed upon are carried out on a timely basis.

The make up of the committees or working groups includes representatives of federal agencies, state agencies, NGOs, the private sector and the foundation. The membership in the committees or working groups will include organizations from the private and public sector, and all are encouraged to contribute solutions and toward the mitigation of the relevant environmental issue. The committees or working groups are evaluated on the basis of monitoring data that is kept or managed by the lead agency. An important feature of the environmental initiatives to date has been their capacity to develop monitoring data that allows the governors and congressional delegations to determine the effectiveness of the programs that they have set on a Basin wide basis. Indicators of progress are the lynch pin of the environmental initiatives, and provide the political leaders with evidence that they can take to the public on the success of the environmental program.

These committees or working groups are also effective ways of getting interagency cooperation and sharing of funds. Cost sharing is common among the state and federal agencies as well as NGOs, the private sector and the foundation. The total amount of funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program has been estimated close to $1.5 billion between 2000 and 2005. The Great Basin Environmental Program represents an important way to focus the environmental effort on a set of issues and facilitate groups who have resources to address these issues in a collaborative way.

Mapping of the Great Basin will also be a responsibility of the lead agency. The maps are of watersheds, ecological zones, ground water sources, population growth and distribution and other factors that make the work of the committees or working groups more effective. These maps are a way of getting committees or workgroups to pull together on the basis of shared knowledge and not a directive culture.

The Great Basin Environmental Program will enhance existing environmental initiatives currently operating in the basin. Efforts that are under way in the Great Basin or in parts of the Great Basin include, but are not limited to the Joint Fire Sciences Program, the Sage Steppe Project, USDA IFAFS Restoration of Cheat Grass Infested Range Lands, the New Collaborative Management and Research in the Great Basin Effort. It is anticipated that some of these projects could be singled out by the governors and the congressional delegations for direct support by the Great Basin Environmental Program.